Jersey’s notorious AIDS crew brought their skills indoors for a legal showing of their talents, and they killed it. Simple as that.

The show, which was at Jersey City’s 58 Gallery, was impressive as a whole, rather than on the strength of the individual pieces. It was like one big collaborative installation with solo pieces thrown in for good measure.

Simple graffiti covered the walls, which was then washed over in various spots with different colors of transparent paint. More detailed attention grabbing smaller paintings adorned the walls at different spots on top of the subtle graffiti. Then messy white squares were thrown up, and the paintings were placed within them. This stark border helped emphasize the individual works, allowing the viewer to look at them without being overwhelmed by the paintings around it.

There was so much to look at on the walls that it took me a good twenty minutes to absorb it all.

As for the solo works, Distort’s oil painting of kids playing with guns really burned everybody else. Komar’s electric pole was fire was well. The pole and electric box were painted in the corner, and a wire was stretched from the top of it to the other corner of the gallery. Shoes were then strung over it. Dutch’s stained glass window of Biggie also stood out.

The opening was earlier this month, but it will still be open for viewing for about another week. Unfortunately, somebody took their time sending me photos, or I would have posted this sooner. Check out Photos By Tone for some more shots of the opening. Also peep Distort’s Jokerized City Council member here. 

Photo by Tone.

With scenes of Jim Crow’s rural South fresh in my mind from a recent reading of Richard Wright’s autobiography, Blackboy, I finished up a painting and listened to music. Deep in thought, the music didn’t fully catch me until the lyrics of Dead Prez’s "Animal in Man" played. The rural setting of the song - a black militant hip hop rendition of Orwell’s Animal Farm - made it particularly poignant. It was a moment that brought to clarity this vague opinion that had been forming all these years. Although I’d heard it countless times, it was then that I decided:

It is one of the best hip hop songs of all time.

The first reason this argument needs to be taken seriously is the thoughtfulness of the subject matter. The duo tell their version of Animal Farm; where the animals revolt against their violent slave master only to be once again enslaved by one of their own. The biggest difference in the two forms is that Dead Prez have more faith in the oppressed. When the pigs start to become dictators, Orwell’s farm can’t be sure what’s happening. But in this version they are instantly aware.

The next reason is the quality of the song itself. Rhymes are never sacrificed for the sake of the story. Nor are any unnecessary words added to make a rhyme. The lyrics are uniformly consistent, never veering from their tale. The delivery is good enough to be listened to A capella, while the enunciation is clear at all times. And the beat, although not worthy of the title of the best on it’s own, completes the song’s overall deservedness. With it’s variety of live instruments, it is intricate yet not too busy, allowing the lyrics shine while adding to the dynamism.

Although I have a number of issues with Dead Prez on the whole, I wouldn’t hesitate to include "Animal in Man" on my limited list.

From the comments section of a post over at Dutty Artz about knowing something about the lyrics and culture of the music DJs and producers are playing or sampling. A thoughtful discussion over there.

Be forewarned, however, ‘cuz this ish is not for the faint of heart. It’s a caffeine-pill-washed-down-with-Redbull, insert-illicit-drug-here fueled journey. Dude hits Speed Racer tempos for most of the entire hour.

He hits enough of the appropriate notes (selection-wise, if not compositionally) to satisfy the majority of heavy bass fans. No specific genre could claim this mix. But it’s confined to UK style wobbly, electronic bass. While other forms of bass infused sounds exist, this mix is havin’ none of that.

For a British bass dweller, Kanji has got a healthy interest in the scene here in the States. Nearly a third of the names in this remix saturated, 23 cut mixtape hail from the East Coast. Mostly, this role is filled by Trouble & Bass, the bassline kings of New York, and dubstep overlord Starkey, who also reps T&B, but calls Philly home. Since NLLR is based in Brooklyn, this may come as no big surprise.

On a related note, Franki Chan, founder of IHeartComix, dropped a mix for NLLR as well. It’s also worth your expensive time.

Before we even get into this joint, Culture System would just like to apologize for posting a video with dancing iTunes characters and cats with monitors on… That said, today we present to you Wittyboy on production and the Doctor on the mic.

Wittyboy’s bassline mix of Doctor’s "Calm Down," is more than a dance mix - it can stand alone from the original, which was produced by the larger than life Cotti.

His beats shuffle through a variety of sounds and rhtyms, which keeps it interesting. Granted he stays within the comfortable confines of the bassline genre with a standard percussion and basic wonky bass. But it’s top of the game in this respect. And he adds a nice flute which really stands out. One could even make the argument that the flute makes the song remorseful - a fitting touch considering the lyrics - but that would break down once the wobbles kick in.

Doctor comes correct himself, with a smooth delivery and voice, consistent subject matter and a point to be made which he drives home with dense rhymes and numerous similes. It might even be called positive, which is what Cotti says he’s trying to encourage.

Given the quality of the rhymes, it was a good move on Wittyboy’s part to leave them untouched. Unfortunately, he leaves the hook to itself as well, which is dumb repetitive. And he drowns out the lyrics a bit, so if you want to understand them, you might want to listen to the original first. But you’ll be sure to come back to this version.

It’s too bad from the visual side of things, too. If I dropped a single, the lyrics would look something like the picture to the left. I wrote the rhymes, and 2Grotesk rocked the handstyle and printed it up on my jacket. Not this Grotesk - this one.

For the graf challenged, it says: "In case we only live life once, don’t waste it. Take it seriously. Fill your plate. Hasten your pace. Take the reins, don’t wait. It’s high stakes, face it. Replace any wasted space with a statement."

Click on the flicks below for larger images.

I made this over a month ago, but due to reasons I won’t mention, I did nothing with it. Enjoy.

Tracklisting:

"Wearing My Rolex" (Pirate Soundsystem Bassline RMX), Wiley, Wearing My Rolex (Enhanced), Asylum

"Mad Again" (Boy 8-Bit RMX), South Rakkas Crew, Mad Decent

"Wide Awake,"  Equalizers, Revenge/Wide Awake, Pure Filth

"Enjoy," Baracoot

"Penultimate Persian," Clark, Turning Dragons, Warp

"Smoke and Mirrors," JDSY, Adage of Known. Ghostly

"Traffickers," The Reflecting Skin, Ghostly Swim, Ghostly

"Monday" (Glitch Mob RMX), Nalepa, Flatlands Remix CD, Native State

"Done with the Zine," Pacheko, Flatlands, Murder Channel Compilation, Murder Channel

Called "Dark Dancer," the song is made by a French group named Polymik. There’s really no need to go into a detailed review of the song - it’s your basic housey electro-disco revival joint in the vein of IHeartComix or Boys Noize. Granted, this has officially become a style now, but rather than just hopping on a bandwagon, these dudes come correct with it.

Their profile photo had me a little skeptical, though - a mummy face with a stitched-closed mouth - but I like a lot of that industrial stuff, so I gave it a shot. I mean, I’m not exactly carving 666 into my desk or anything, but yeah, give me some musical S&M and I’ll dance to it.

When I say Britsh hip hop, a lot of people are like, "Oh, like The Streets?" Nah. Some of this is new, some not, all of it’s hot.

<via Core 77>